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“There’s more,” Vic said. “He was pretty confident that what they were doing was going to work, that whatever they were bringing to pass, would bring the royals down.”

“‘The door will be opened,’” Adam said, quoting the banshee in the cardboard church.

“What door?” Emily asked.

Adam could see it, a clean split in a mountain of gray stone.

“The Between. Whatever is trapped there wants out. The banshees are just the beginning.”

“Email . . . So not an elf, right?” Vic asked.

The group looked to Dautre.

“A few of us have mastered it, but it is unlikely.”

“What do we do now?” Emily asked.

“We have two leads, the imps and the email.” Adam turned to Dautre. “Will you take this news to Argent?”

“I will.”

Adam didn’t miss that he left with Emily.

Then it was Jodi’s turn to go. Vic didn’t stand but she squeezed his shoulders in an awkward, leaning hug.

“Are you all right?” Adam asked her as he walked her to the door.

“I will be. Cole wasn’t the best, but damn . . . to do all this?” She shook her head. “I think I’m the most pissed off about Cathedra.”

“She was definitely better than your usual taste in music,” Adam said.

“Ass.” But she smiled as she flipped him off, telling him she’d be okay.

Adam locked the door and set the alarm behind her.

He brought Vic his tea, chamomile with honey, and took the seat across from him.

“What are you going to do with that?” Vic nodded to the empty spirit bottle.

“I’ve got a dozen of them. I probably shouldn’t drop them into the recycling. I’ll put a binding on them, just in case, and find a way to dispose of ’em.”

It could wait. For the moment, Vic needed to come first.

“How often is the Reaper showing up?”

“Why?”

“You’re tired, and I’m sorry. I should have asked how you were before I jumped into this séance thing.”

“Nah.” Vic wrapped his hands around his mug. “It’s important, and you don’t know how long the information will be good for.”

“It doesn’t matter. You should always come first.”

Vic shook his head. “I love you, I really do, but that’s not true. You’re trying to save lives. That has to be your priority, not me.”

It stung because Vic was right, which as they’d established, was pretty much all the time.

“I always knew it would be like this,” he said. “I just expected the one to be out there trying to make the world better while my—spouse sat at home worrying.”